Neighbourhood Narratives competition
Orana Arts partnered with the international walking creatives network, walk · listen · create, to offer a prize for creatives living and working in Regional NSW, writing about Regional NSW. Entries closed 2 April. The winners and runners-up will be announced on 5 May.
6 MAY: WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The winners of the inaugural walk · listen · create Neighbourhood Narratives: Stories Around Us international writing competition have been announced. READ HERE
The winner of the Regional NSW category sponsored by us with a cash prize of $165 is: Sharon Bonthuys of Narromine NSW with 'Still Standing: Dandaloo Church'
The overall winner of Neighbourhood Narratives is Conchita Navarro Saez with 'Cherry', and the runners-up are Vanessa Wright's 'Howmore Church: A Pilgrimage', Ann de Forest's 'Carrying Trees to Clark Park', Arthur Sparrow's 'Time Less'.
Orana Arts' Executive Director, Alicia Leggett said: Congratulations to Narromine-based writer, Sharon Bonthuys on her win in the Regional NSW category of the Neighbourhood Narratives competition! Her story captures the history of a place in the heart of the State that could very easily be lost over time.
Partnering with walk · listen · create on Neighbourhood Narratives was a wonderful initiative to not only capture and share some of the wonderful place-based stories we know exist across Regional NSW but an opportunity for regional writers from Australia to test their storytelling skills in an international arena. Supported by some of our regional writing groups, the format of flash, creative non-fiction was a great starting point for many who may not have tried writing in this style or entered a competition before. We were pleased to see Regional NSW so well represented amongst the entries.
Also shortlisted from Regional NSW were Jamie Derkenne (Little Forest) for ‘Little Forest’ and Jason Richardson (Leeton) for ‘Dead Heart of the MIA’. You can find their stories on the walk · listen · create website too. Sharon, Jason and Jamie are all Studio Co!Lab members.
Jamie and Jason’s works are also now available on Placecloud.io.
Read the shortlisted and winning works and the winners’ announcement from walk · listen · create.
28 APRIL: SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED
The shortlisted writers are (*Regional NSW):
Georgia Mavroudi - The Tears of Aphrodite Euploia
Emma Pavans de Ceccatty - The Sycamore on my street
Ann de Forest - Carrying the Trees to Clark Park
Vanessa Wright - Howmore Church: A Pilgrimage
* Sharon Bonthuys - Still Standing: Dandaloo Church
Arthur Sparrow - Time less
* Jason Richardson - Dead Heart of the MIA
Conchita Navarro Saez - Cherry
* Jamie Derkenne - Little Forest
Dan Harwood - The Monument Woman
Chris Cuninghame - Chances
Peter Isaacson - East Hynish Lighthouse Cottages
Richard Westcott - Birds of Passage at Bradwell
READ THE STORIES
CONGRATULATIONS to those who made the shortlist. Stories suitable for the short podcast platform, Placecloud.io are now being prepared in audio and we'll share them when they're ready to listen to.
walk · listen · create and place-based stories platform, Placecloud.io invite creatives from Regional NSW, over the age of 16, to write creative and descriptive non-fiction, about buildings, parks, streets/roads, special trees and even more special views—places that make up your neighbourhoods, be they urban, suburban or rural. This is a new competition from walk · listen · create, called Neighbourhood Narratives - stories around us.
Creatives from across Regional NSW, over the age of 16, are invited to write creative and descriptive non-fiction, about buildings, parks, streets/roads, special trees, and special views in their neighbourhoods, be they urban, suburban or rural. You might have a story about a favourite cafe, a former prison now tourist attraction—there are a few of those, the people behind landmark buildings in your town, places that are no longer visible due to time or natural disaster, a favourite piece of street art, the origins of a favourite green space…the possibilities of sharing our regional histories, stories and special places are endless.
Each non-fiction story submitted to Neighbourhood Narratives needs to be between 250 and 350 words, and ideally about a place familiar to you. If you wish to be eligible for the Regional NSW prize in the competition, your story will need to be about a place in Regional NSW you are familiar with, and you will need to live and work in the regions—anywhere but Sydney.
Judges will shortlist the stories first, with an overall prize winner and runners-up selected from the list. There are cash prizes for the winner and runners-up, and the winner will also get a specially commissioned artwork by Alban Low, who created the illustration for the competition and has illustrated several of the writing competition chapbooks published by walk · listen · create.
Additionally, there are two category prizes: one for creatives in Regional NSW and one for those writing about Bath in the UK. You could potentially win the main prize and the regional categories. Orana Arts is sponsoring the Regional NSW prize of €100 and throwing in a year’s membership to Studio Co!Lab* (valued at A$60) if you’re not already a member.
walk · listen · create will separately select submissions for inclusion on Placecloud.io. These stories will need to be produced as short audio pieces if selected. Placecloud is an open platform, so if you so choose, you can add ‘viewpoints’ (short audio pieces) to Placecloud at any time, but this is not a requirement for participation in this competition. Competition judges will make their decisions based on the written stories only.
*Studio Co!Lab is a membership-based platform for creatives managed by Orana Arts. It provides networking, professional development, grants, residencies, and professional support to creatives of all artforms, living and working in Regional NSW.
KEY INFORMATION
WORD COUNT & GENRE: 250-350 words. Place-based, creative non-fiction stories.
PRIZES: An overall winner (€100), runners-up (€30), Regional NSW and Bath UK categories (€100 each) - cash and additional prizes for each
PLACECLOUD STORIES: Selected stories will be chosen for Placecloud (not necessarily winning stories)
ENTRY FEES: €8 (about A$13) for one non-fiction story and €12 (about A$20) for two (entrants are limited to 2 entries only). Student (over 16) discounted tickets are €2 (about A$3.20) for one submission, €3 (about A$5) for two (which is 75% off full price), ask your tutor or teacher to contact us to receive a discount code. See the WLC website about fee waivers.
HOW TO PAY: To pay your entry fee, you need to REGISTER on the walk · listen · create website (it’s free to register) by returning to the top of the competition page.
MORE IMPORTANT DETAILS: Check your eligibility and format criteria e.g., entries need to be a PDF, before registering and submitting your entry - on the competition page
ENTRIES CLOSE - midnight UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) or 11am AEDT, Tuesday 2 April 2024
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Shortlist - 28 April 2024; Winners - 5 May
If you would like to talk with our team about your idea or need help with your submission, please email us.
